Twitter case: Please find the case in this lesson, Twitter - Strategies for growth .pdf. Please read the Twitter case. As a Strategic Marketing Manager, please put together a growth strategy for Twitter as of December 31, 2016

please read this file

As a strategic Marketing Manager , what is your Marketing strategy for Twitter as of December 31, 2016.

STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH Twitter Despite all that we have accomplished. thller still has huge unmet potential. Jack Dorsey Twitter/Square CEO You can sense the tension in the room just by the demeanor of both Jack Dorsey and Anthony Noto.There was an awkward silence that iingered for a few minutes before the calls were taken. It's the summer of 20|5 and Twitter is currently in disarray. Effective July lst. Dick Costolo will step down as CEO and Jack Dorsey will become the interim CEO.Jaclt Dorsey is the cofounder ofTwitter and was the CEO back in 2007 when the firm first emerged onto the social scene. For many users including the co-founders it was love at rst tweet During a conference call with shareholders. il was important that we expressed our true feelings in regards to the state of the Iirm. Both Anthony and I agreed that we do not see any changes in strategies and direction to shareholders. After the conference, the uncertainty of the firm's future plagued Jack. Twitter may be struggling to a certain degree but the platform has a significant importance in our society. It's a part of our culture. Social media has opened so many doors ior countless individuals. breaks the latest news. and has captured some of our greatest moments in recent history. Our only dilemma is how we can show our users Twitter's value. How can we enhance the quality of the user experience without losing the core essence ofTwitter's purpose? Most importantly how can we increase user engagement? In the beginning of 20|6Twitter shares hit an all-time |ow.They were iust under 320 at $I9.26. Executives were scrambling to gure out how they could introduce new changes to improve the current nancial position. New features for users were introduced in the hope that it would generate more user engagementTvvitter abandoned its favorites and stars for likes and hearts which is simiiar to Instagram. They also introduced moments which are big news events and trending topics in real time. Moments included both pictures and video content Users also had the option of creating their own moments as well for events in their life. Periscope which is the video streaming application Twitter acquired - will no longer require a link; it will auto play in newsfeedsAlrhough these features are a step in the right direction. many investors don't believe they will have a powerful impact on Twitter's financial performance. Competition When it comes to social media. competltion is erce among the biggest platforms. Facebook. lnsaagram. and Snapchat. are just a few of Twitter's biggest competitors. Facebook is an application that allows users to share their thoughts and content without a I40 character limit Facebook has over |.5 billion monthly active users.This greatly exceeds Twitter's 325 million monthly active users. Year after year Facebook has seen enormous growth and engagement In 20l5 Facebook saw an average of 64 I STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH I5 percent growth while Twitter only experienced a mere L4 percentAnnual rev- enue for Facebook has been strong and increasing over the last few years and it cur- rendy holds the biggest market share in the industry. Instaglam is a visual app that allows users to post beautifully filtered photos and videos. Inslagram, which is owned by Facebook, boasts an impressive 500 million monthly active users.The aesthetically pleasing platform was bought by Faceka in 20l2. Over 80 percent of Instagram's active users are outside of the United States. This is good for global advertising revenue. It is estimated that by 20|9 Instagram's global advertising revenue will be $6.84 billion (johnson. 20I7). Snapchat. which is fairly new to die social media arena, is a platform that allows users to post and send Ill-second videos and photos that disappeanYour photos or videos can be enhanced with beautiful. fun, and whimsical lters. ie application is wildly popular among teenagers and young adults.The young rm has a very active I50 million users. In 20I6 the company hit a milestone when it was reported that it exceeded Facebook's daily video views by 2 billion. The history of Twitter jack Dorsey.Twitter co-founder. had an idea in 2006 of an EMS-based communications platform. Groups of friends could keep tabs on what each other were doing based on dieir status updates (MacArthur, 20l6).]ack sent the first message on Twitter on March 2|. 2006 at 9.50 pm. It read.\"iust setting up my twttn" When it started,Twitter was referred to as "t'wtm" Soft-ware developer Noah Glass is credited widi coming up with the original name tvv'ttr a well as its nal incar- nation asTwitter (MacArthur. 20I6). The initial concept afTwitter was tested at Odeo. but: that company's business model failed with the relase of die Apple podcasting platform. Odeo's founders decided to buy their company back from the investors.They acquired the rights to the Twitter platfonn.0bvious Corporation was cmted after the investor buyback of Odeo in order to houseTwitter (MacArtliunZOl).There is a l40-character limit on Twitter since it was originally designed as an SMS mobile phonebased platform. I40 characters were the limit that mobile carriers imposed with SMS protocol standard. Twioter eventually grew into a web platform and the Flo-character limit remained. The 2007 South By Soudiwest Interactive conference saw a huge explosion of the Twitter platfom1.0bvious Corporation was cruted after the investor buyback of Odeo in order to houseTwitter (MacArthur, 20 | 6).There is a l40-character limit on Twitter since it was originally designed as an SMS mobile phone-based platform. I40 characters were the limit that mobiie carriers imposed with SMS protocol standard. Twitter eventually grew into a web platform and the Milcharacter limit remained. The 2007 South By Southwest Interactive conference saw a huge explosion of Twitter usage. More dian 60,000 tweets were sent per day at the evenLThe Twitter team had a huge presence at the event and took advantage of the viral nature of the conference and its attendees (MacArdiur, 20l6). It's safe to say that Twitter had its fair share of growing pains during Its formative yearsTwitter's user base grew at astounding rates and quite frequently the service would be over capacityAsTwitter's user base started growing users created new jargon and different ways to use the ser- vice. Examples include users adding an \"@" symbol before their usemame to identify another user within a tweetto facilitate replying to othersThis functionality was then added to theTwitter platform.The use of hashmgs was also created by a user in 2007 and became part of Twitter (Twitter. 20 I 7). In October 20 l 0. Dick Costolo became the CEO replacing Jack Dorsey. In 20l I. Twitter acquired TweetDeck. teamed up WII'J'I Apple to integrate Twitter into IOS 5. and allowed users to share photos via SMS. In 20l2. Twitter was able to offer STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH I 65 self-service advertising for small businesses. in partnership with American Express. In 20| 3.Twitter led an IPO and in November. it made news with one of the biggest lPOs of all time for a U.S. internet company.and shares soared more than 70 percent after they debuted on the New York Stock Exchange (T sukayama and EIBoghdady. 20l 3). Twitter's growth has come from what it has launched and what it has acquired. In 20I3. Twitter launched Vine. which is a short-form video hosting service where users could share 6-second-long looping video clips. In 20|4.Twitter acquired Gnip (an enterprise application programming interfaces [API] platform. delivering real-time and historical social data to power businesses). Namo Media (a specialist in "native ad\" content that integrates with the site where the ads that are being viewed), Snappy TV (the service for clipping. editing. and sharing clips from live broadcasts in near real-time). Tap Commeme (mobile retargeting and reengagement advertising). and CardSpring (AP! that makes it easy for developers to link digital applications to credit or debit cards). In 20l4.Twitter launched PmmotedVideos and Fabric (Twitter, 10\"). In 20 I 5Twitter acquired ZipDial. Niche. Periscope.TellApart and launched direct messages and mobile video. highlights. birthday features on profilesan event targeting tool for advertisers. moments. polls.and hearts (Twitter. ml 7). Since its inception.Twitter has gained almost 200 million users worldwide.About 460.000 new Twitter accounts are opened daily. More than I40 million tweets are sent daily which translates to one billion weekly (Picard. 20f I). Twitter impacted media by enabling people to tweet about the news including disasters, politics. sports. and celebrities (Pimrd, 20| I). Many people were foilowing news via the tweets from people they followed on TwittenTwitter has affected businesses as it is used increas- ingly by business to communicate with employees and customers. Business den com- municate real-time messages to the customers they want to reach. Conversely. when customers are unhappy with a product or service. they can spread the word quickly - and do damage with a few tweets (Picard. 20I I). By 20|5.Twin:er's steak plunged from $40 billion at the time of the IPO in 20|3 to as low as $|6.5 billion in August of INS (Bilton. 20I5). Investor condence was declining and Twitter faced competition from Facebook and other social media com- panies.The board of directors was fragmented and employee morale was at a low. Original CEO and founder Jack Dorsey was brought back to Twitter to take over leadership as CEO and resolve the many troubles facing it. Current status Twitter has hit a few roadbloclo along the wayThough it made some right decisions. ir. is just not being able to generate revenue consistently. While monthly user growth remains slow. Twitter has the lowest advertising spending compared to its competitors. International strength helped user growth to stay ahead of expectatlons. though it had a decline from 307 million users to 305 million active by the end of 20l6 (Guynn. 20l6)i According to the C00 Anthony Noto.Twitter is welcoming lost users as well as new ones by improving confusing rules that drive users away.The problem is that many people do not understand how or why to use the platform and as a result the company has been losing users to other apps. Since Microsoft's purchase of Linkedln. experts speculate that Twitter will be the next acquisition. It is believed that'l'witter 66 I STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH may live on in a whole new form if acquired by successful companies like Google or Disney But the number one priority to Jack Dorsey is recruiting and innovaan around the core product experience. 5&P Global Market Intelligence analyst Scott Kessler points out that one of the most. difficult things forTwitter now is \"seeing the turnover in tenns of product leadership and what they really lack is their ability to really change and improve their product experience which has led to flattish user engagement numbers" (Guynn. 20l6). A . \"h\": ..... n4 'lnll mm\"..- 11.5."... m... \"aura-.. .n ".4\"-.. :.. r...\" l... -- to really change and improve their product experience which has led to attish user engagement numbers" (Guynn. 20%). According to Q4 20l6 reports. Twitter was expecting to reduce its stiff by as much as 8 percent, which means approximately 300 iobs. It has considered selling itself but experts wonder who would be the best andidate.Though the company reported its total user base at 307 million users. up from 305 million. Twitter reported the stock down nearly ll percent in 02 20|6.The revenue miss was because the brand marketers did not spend as quickly.While Twitter is today die most popular app it can also be a marketer's worst facThe issue Dorsey is committed to is to nd the strategy to attract the right type of followers and keep them engaged.A year after Dorsey returned with live-streaming and new producls,Twitter is still not showing signs of growdl.Twitter's stock dropped 20 percent in 20l6 before news began to surface about a possible sale. The question that keeps popping up is should Twitter continue as an independent company or consider the benefits of getting acquired (Friar. 20 I 6)? Jack Dorsey - background and influences Jack Dorsey. founder and current CEO of Twitter. was born in St. Louis. Missouri in I976. Growing up. Jack had an obsession with cities and maps. He also had an interest in coding and computer programming. Slarting off with a Macintosh com- puter given to him by his father, Jack created a program where he could track vehicles moving around St. Louis in real time (Statt. ZOI 5).As a self-taught college programmer bored with his schooling in Missouri. he set his sights on a job with Dispatch Management Solutions in New York.With no contact information on its website. Jack hacked into it in order to create an email to the company's founder (Parnell, 20 I6).The email let Greg Kidd know about a security breath on its website and he explained that he could write disPatch software. He was hired one week later and it was a dream come true. His employer allowed him to see (and work) first hand with a company that kept track of public transit. emergency vehicles, and taxis which took him back to his childhood and obsession with cities; who is doing what and when they are doing it Jack had rst begun a college career at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. left for his position at Dispatch Management Solutions and later enrolled at NYU. He dropped out before graduating. later moving to Oakland. California along with Greg Kidd. lack moved to be closer to where technology and business was booming. In 2005.]ack was hired as an entry level coder at the podcast startup Odeo (State 20l5).Wirh Apple's podcasting taking off around the same time. Odeo was done for. Jack was able to bring his idms to life with the support of Odeo's co- founder Noah Glass Twitter slarted as an idea for a way to keep in touch with your friends. sharing short messages online.Twitter |.0 began as a simple website where users were able STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH I 67 to post I40character messages that lack called \"tweets." Twitter Inc. was officially founded on March 2|. 2006 (MacArthur. 20l6). Twitter's problem The main problem that Twitter has been facing throughout the years is the ability to monetize its platform and grow its user base. \"Twitter has been looking for newer ways to figure out how to monetize its user base if it isn't going to be able to rapidly grow it" (Lynley. 20l 7). One way it has tried to increase engagement has been through live-streaming as it says that \"video is its largest revenue-genelating ad format." but it still struggles with seeing the numbers it desires (Lynley. 20l7). It has also released many new product updates and has increased character limits, but it seems like these updates have had no effect on its expected growth."After a wildly successful IPO in 20| 3.Twitter quickly began to struggle with life as a public company. Gone were the cushy days of being a well-funded private start-up: the reality of pleasing shareholders began to set in" (Alba. 20I7). It seemed like it was very difcult for it to gure out exactly what kind of service it was trying to provide to its users while also being able to meet its shareholders' expectations. Advertising revenue totaled $638 million in the fourth quarter of 20l6. which has actually been down year after year. \"Advertising revenue growth may be further impacted by escalating competitlon for digital ad spending and the re-evaluation of their revenue product feature portfolio. which could result in the de-emphasis of cer- tain product features" (O'Brien, 20\"). Twitter needed to show that it could have a strong fourth quarter given that the 2016 U.S. presidential eleclion, probably one of the most Twitter zeitgeisly moments of all time. happened. Beyond that. President Donald Trump is also an active Twitter user. givung it additional strength as a go~to platform for news, lLynley. 2017] Despite all of thatTwitter's revenues were still down and it seemed like it was not able to apimlize in a way that could benefit it. User growth is another signicant challenge thatTwitter has been facing for years. Unless people use Twitter for their iob or \"have become familiar wilh it over a long period of time. there may not be a good reason to sign up and continue using it day in and day out" (Slant. ZOIS). This is the major obstacle Twitter has been facing and even with added product features and a strong engagement fnom its core users. new users are not really interested when they have other social platforms as options.While Twitter makes the use of everything being In real time on its pladorm to be an advan- tage. it is still not enough to grow that numbecWith Dorsey's return as CEO in 2016. the company was expecting him to execute the kind of plan and results that only a \f